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Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Cop Fired for Not Killing Suicidal Man

This is the worst fucking story ever. It's also a perfect demonstration of how the police aren't here to help most people. They're actually not supposed to. They can be fired and denied pension for not murdering certain people right away rather than following their training and instincts, assessing the situation, and deescalating.

“I saw then he had a gun, but it was not pointed at me,” Mr. Mader recalled, noting the silver handgun was in the man’s right hand, hanging at his side and pointed at the ground.

Mr. Mader, who was standing behind Mr. Williams’ car parked on the street, said he then “began to use my calm voice.”

“I told him, ‘Put down the gun,’ and he’s like, ‘Just shoot me.’ And I told him, ‘I’m not going to shoot you brother.’ Then he starts flicking his wrist to get me to react to it.

“I thought I was going to be able to talk to him and deescalate it. I knew it was a suicide-by-cop” situation.

Using his training, Officer Mader could have calmed the suicidal man down and saved his life. Instead, two other officers arrived and killed him. The gun was found to be unloaded.

The man, Ronald D. Williams Jr., was a man of color. I couldn't find a confirmation of his actual race but he is not white.

And then:

In a meeting with the chief and City Manager Travis Blosser, Mr. Mader said Chief Alexander told him: “We’re putting you on administrative leave and we’re going to do an investigation to see if you are going to be an officer here. You put two other officers in danger.”

Mr. Mader said that “right then I said to him: ‘Look, I didn’t shoot him because he said, ‘Just shoot me.’”

On June 7, a Weirton officer delivered him a notice of termination letter dated June 6, which said by not shooting Mr. Williams he “failed to eliminate a threat.”

That's what people of color are to police departments. Threats. Not people. Threats that need to be eliminated, no matter what the situation is. Because their lives don't matter.

This is the state of the U.S. police. Cops who kill people of color are rewarded with paid leave. Cops who fail to kill people of color given the chance are fired.